Following the 2019 rape and murder of Caroline Cano in 2019 in Jersey City’s Lincoln Park that called for the installation of Emergency Blue Light phones, the county has recently equipped Hoboken County parks with the lights.
Hudson County commissioners voted unanimously last August to expand the program, a $1 million effort to make parks safer. Cano, a 45-year-old Jersey City woman, was found strangled and raped in Lincoln Park, one of the county’s biggest at 273 acres.
Since the unanimous approval, the County has been installing the Emergency Blue Light Phones throughout the 44 Hudson County parks. Hoboken’s two County parks, Columbus Park (9th/Clinton) and the 14th Street Viaduct Park (14th/Adams) are now in operation.
Sofia Baracskai, a 17-year-old whose evening strolls after studying will sometimes take her through Columbus Park, said that although she feels safe it’s “extra assurance to see the emergency phone.”
Board of Commissioners member Bill O’Dea says the lights don’t get used often – and that’s OK by him. The goal is to be able to have a fast response time if the phones are used. “Whenever they do get utilized, the ability to get law enforcement to quickly respond is so critical from a public safety perspective,” O’Dea said.
The County will continue to add the lights to the 10 remaining parks in the coming weeks, including eight for Stephen R. Gregg Park and four for Mercer Park in Bayonne and for James J. Braddock Park in North Bergen.
